Software Testing Types

* COMPATIBILITY TESTING. Testing to ensure compatibility of an application or Web site with different browsers, OS, and hardware platforms. Compatibility testing can be performed manually or can be driven by an automated functional or regression test suite.

* FUNCTIONAL TESTING. Validating an application or Web site conforms to its specifications and correctly performs all its required functions. This entails a series of tests which perform a feature by feature validation of behavior, using a wide range of normal and erroneous input data. This can involve testing of the product’s user interface, APIs, database management, security, installation, networking, etc testing can be performed on an automated or manual basis using black box or white box methodologies.

* LOAD TESTING. Load testing is a generic term covering Performance Testing and Stress Testing.

* PERFORMANCE TESTING. Performance testing can be applied to understand your application or WWW site’s scalability, or to benchmark the performance in an environment of third party products such as servers and middle ware for potential purchase. This sort of testing is particularly useful to identify performance bottlenecks in high use applications. Performance testing generally involves an automated test suite as this allows easy simulation of a variety of normal, peak, and exceptional load conditions.

* REGRESSION TESTING. Similar in scope to a functional test, a regression test allows a consistent, repeatable validation of each new release of a product or Web site. Such testing ensures reported product defects have been corrected for each new release and that no new quality problems were introduced in the maintenance process. Though regression testing can be performed manually an automated test suite is often used to reduce the time and resources needed to perform the required testing.

* SMOKE TESTING. A quick-and-dirty test that the major functions of a piece of software work without bothering with finer details. Originated in the hardware testing practice of turning on a new piece of hardware for the first time and considering it a success if it does not catch on fire.

* STRESS TESTING. Testing conducted to evaluate a system or component at or beyond the limits of its specified requirements to determine the load under which it fails and how. A graceful degradation under load leading to non-catastrophic failure is the desired result. Often Stress Testing is performed using the same process as Performance Testing but employing a very high level of simulated load.

* UNIT TESTING. Functional and reliability testing in an Engineering environment. Producing tests for the behavior of components of a product to ensure their correct behavior prior to system integration.

Basics of Software Testing

“Testing is a skill. While this may come as a surprise to some people, it is a simple fact”

Software Testing:

Software testing is the process of finding the defects as soon as possible and fixing them before delivering products to the client and also verify that the application meets the client’s requirement.
This increases the “Quality” of the product and decreases the “Risk”

Importance of Testing:

It Increases Customer satisfaction and the number of customers as well.
It Increases the Quality of the application.
It Increases the reputation of the organization.

Methods of Testing:

1) Manual Testing
2) Automation Testing

Levels of Testing:

1) Unit testing
2) Integration testing
3) System Testing
4) Acceptance testing

Types of Testing: (For Web Applications)

Unit Testing:

Done by Developers.

Functional Testing:

1) Sanity Testing
2) Smoke Testing
3) Component Testing
4) Integration Testing
5) Regression Testing
6) URL Testing
7) System Testing
8) Globalization and Localization Testing

Non-Functional Testing:

1) Load Testing
2) Performance Testing
3) Compatibility Testing
4) Installation Testing
5) Usability Testing
6) User Interface Testing
7) Security Testing